Note that we have a general statement of belief for our blog, but we also include this one with specific reference to our education principles. We post this as we complete our series, in preparation for the last few entries beginning tomorrow, in which we will review a number of popular homeschool curricula.

When we use the word believe, we mean belief in the historic, judicial sense of having seen and evaluated evidence and reached a decision based on the facts presented, like a jury at a trial giving a verdict on a case before them.

We believe in the absolute authority of the Scriptures, Old and New Testaments. This is based on an historical, grammatical interpretation. Things mean what the writer of the time period intended them to mean, and that a plain, straightforward meaning is almost always the correct meaning. Scriptures must also be compared with Scriptures, passages looked at in context and subjects as part of a whole teaching throughout the Bible.

The Bible sometimes uses literary devices, different kinds in various places. As one example, In Judges 9, Jotham’s story of the trees seeking a king is not a literal event, though brambles and other trees are literal, real-world objects. It is a parable, and there are other parables. The sword coming out of Jesus Christ’s mouth in Revelation is literal in the sense that it is the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, which is a metaphor, another literary device used in many places in the Bible.

We also believe in the Priesthood of every believer, meaning that every believer can pray to God and read His word and that Christ is the only mediator we need. Salvation is by grace through faith alone.

Works are a testimony of salvation, not a way to obtain Salvation. The Church is made up only of professing believers. The Church was created at Pentecost. It is not a continuation of Israel. We believe in the Premillennial position, that is, that the Church age ends at the Rapture. The time we live in now is called the age of grace, although God has always saved by grace.

The Bible is a Book of Science. It is true, accurate, and reliable. It teaches man’s sinfulness and helplessness without Christ’s salvation and God’s power. Secular Humanism is a Religion of Mythology.

As the Established Religion in America it is taught in Public Schools to teach students that they have no sin, that they are perfectible by their own efforts, and that there is no God to Whom they are responsible.